Comments on: Right to buy counterfeit

By: lekhni

lekhni — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:26:01 +0000

sanjukta: Thanks! I believe we will see more and more people downloading movies and burning their own DVDs. Already iTunes allows movie downloads that are cheaper than store bought DVDs.. if DVD/ downloaded movie costs come down to $1, piracy should come down drastically.

By: sanjukta

sanjukta — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:02:07 +0000

Very well reasoned point of view. Totally in agreement with you.

By: lekhni

lekhni — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:25:02 +0000

Arunima:
A Cynic in Wonderland: I have read about a lot of companies selling fake pills on the Internet..I look forward to reading your post
Kamini: I agree, cheating consumers is immoral and unethical. But the case where there is no cheating is just free markets in operation.
dipali: Right, it’s not about whether I personally buy fake brands, but I do not see why I should not be allowed to if I wanted to.
Plus, while pirated books and CDs do reduce royalties, the bigger losses are really to the publishers. Again, perhaps if those books were properly priced, more people would have bought the original..

By: Right to buy counterfeit at Blogbharti

Right to buy counterfeit at Blogbharti — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:29:43 +0000

[...] Lekhni defends her right to buy counterfeit goods: Three reasons: [...]

By: dipali

dipali — Sat, 24 May 2008 09:24:03 +0000

Very interesting perspective. I need to think some more.
Since I’m personally quite anti-brand snobbery and believe in buying something of good quality irrespective of its pedigree, the entire fake, wannabe scene seems so pathetic. Which is not saying it isn’t real.
I guess rich people need to be exclusive, and poorer people need material goods to aspire to, which is what this entire market caters too. But pirated books and music reduce even the tiny copyright that the creator gets from authorised sources. And those who manufacture or deal in spurious drugs are beyond the pale.

By: Kamini

Kamini — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:50:48 +0000

You are absolutely right. Counterfeiters operate on the same principles of economics and the capitalistic model that “regular” companies do. If you remove the moral and ethical dimensions, it’s a simple case of supply and demand.
Kamini.

By: A Cynic in Wonderland

A Cynic in Wonderland — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:08:47 +0000

the first kind – the cheated kind, the figures are astounding. i recently did some work in counterfeit medicines – 1 out of every 3 pills you take is a counterfeit? it doesnt matter where you buy it from.
ok. i went off on a tangent. but the figures have been haunting me for a while. been meaning to do a post for ages. maybe now i shall start it.

By: arunima

arunima — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:38:21 +0000

Agreed on many points.

By: lekhni

lekhni — Fri, 23 May 2008 02:13:28 +0000

Sujatha: That’s not strictly true. The buyer of the $1000 bag is not going to mind because some passerby on the street has a $20 knock-off; it’s clearly fake.
Plus, snob value only applies to some categories. The buyer of the pirated book/CD harms the profits, certainly, but not the brand name..

filarial: I guess the original publishers also spend money on marketing, which adds to the cost..but it’s not just higher costs, many times the margins to pirated companies are also lower than the margins to the sellers of the original high-priced stuff.. so it comes down to companies just trying to extract the maximum price consumers are willing to pay.

km: I am certainly using “pirated” and “counterfeit” interchangeably. As for “smuggled”, unless the counterfeit goods are being manufactured locally, it’s certainly possible that they were smuggled in..though I only used the smuggled gold example to show how laws that are out of touch with reality sometimes cause people to take risks and breach the law.

By: km

km — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:51:01 +0000

Lekhni,
Are you using the words “counterfeit”, “smuggled” and “pirated” interchangeably?